Though Lidia is not expected to attain hurricane strength (sustained gusts of 74 mph or stronger), hurricane watches (hurricane conditions possible) and tropical storm warnings have been issued by Mexico. The Florida-based National Hurricane Center listed them as follows in its 6 p.m. update on Wednesday:

A Hurricane Watch is in effect for...

Baja California Sur from Puerto Cortes to east of La Paz

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for...

Baja California Sur from Puerto Cortes to San Evaristo

Mainland Mexico from Bahia Tempehuaya to Huatabampito

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for...

Baja California Sur from north of San Evaristo to Loreto

North of Puerto Cortes to Puerto San Andresito

Lidia, which late Wednesday boasted winds of 40 mph, is expected to arrive near Baja California’s tip late Thursday or early Friday.

Tracy Ehrenberg, general manager of Pisces Sportfishing in the Cabo San Lucas marina, said Wednesday evening via email that boats were ordered back in port before a 1 p.m. port closure.

“A squall blew through that lasted 10 minutes, then it settled again,” Ehrenberg said. “So far just one rain shower that lasted five minutes at most. It’s cloudy but really no wind and seas are not bad on the Pacific… up to, say, 10-15 mph.”

Mark Rayor, owner of Jen Wren Sportfishing in the East Cape region on the Sea of Cortez, added: "Nothing alarming so far. Just hope the forecast is right and it doesn’t spool up. Kinda like a rattlesnake: doesn’t look that bad but you never know when it will get pissed off."

Apr 12, 2017

A Florida family was greeted Sunday by a whale shark “longer than a school bus” and accompanied by hundreds of smaller fish.

“I heard my husband yelling over his regulator and looked up to see a what looked like a rolling cloud,” Brock said. “There were cobia and remoras everywhere - then I realized they were attached to something, and that something was a whale shark!”

The rare encounter with a 30- to 35-foot whale shark occurred off West Palm Beach as Brock was scuba diving with her husband, Keith Brock, her 13-year-old cousin, Addie, and their guide, Craig Buss.

Whale sharks are the planet’s largest fish and can reach lengths of about 40 feet. Fortunately for humans, they’re filter feeders and subside largely on plankton and small fishes.

Brock and her group had been diving with Pura Vida Divers at spot called The Trench, and had begun its ascent ascent from about 60 feet when the whale shark materialized in the distance.

“They are rare in Florida,” Brock said. “People dive their entire lives and never get to witness that.”

Making the experience more surreal were all the remoras and cobras attached to or swirling around the whale shark. (Remoras often attach to sharks and will eat parasites and other organisms from the skin of the host animals.)

“Our teeth were chattering,” Brock said. “The whale shark swam right at us, and then through us. Such a gentle giant. He barely had to flick his tail (which was much taller than me) to gracefully glide through the water.

“When he started to swim away we all just looked at each other in total disbelief. It was the most amazing experience I've ever had diving!”

Nov 24, 2015

Tropical Storm Sandra, a late-season cyclone that developed Tuesday off southern Mexico, is poised to deliver heavy rain, strong winds and flooding in Cabo San Lucas and elsewhere in Baja Sur, and on the mainland coast later this week.

On Tuesday afternoon the storm was located 525 miles south-southwest of Manzanillo and packing sustained winds of 65 mph.

But Sandra was intensifying rapidly and is expected to attain hurricane strength (74-mph winds or stronger) by Tuesday night. According to the National Hurricane Center, Sandra’s projected path shows a potential hit on Baja California’s tip as early as Friday afternoon.

The were were no warnings or watches in effect as of Tuesday afternoon.

Sandra is one of the latest-forming tropical storms known to forecasters. This is because of unusually warm waters in the region, thanks in large part to a powerful El Niño that's still developing in the equatorial Pacific.

“Conditions are quite favorable for Sandra to intensify over the next couple of days, with record-warm sea surface temperatures of 29-30°C (84-86°F) and wind shear of less than 10 knots beneath an upper-level high arcing around the storm.

“If Sandra does reach Category 2 strength, it will be the strongest Eastern Pacific hurricane known to exist so late in the year. All of the six cyclones above were tropical storms or Category 1 hurricanes except for Kenneth, which hit Category 4 strength on November 24, 2011. Kenneth is the latest-occurring major hurricane in Eastern Pacific.”

Oct 15, 2014

There have been plenty of “Wow!” moments for marine mammal enthusiasts this season in Monterey Bay, thanks to an abundance of voracious and active humpback whales off the Central California coast.

But what occurred in front of passengers aboard a Sanctuary Cruises boat Monday has to rank beyond a mere “Wow!” moment. They watched in awe as a large humpback breached so closely–only yards away–that it caused their boat to pitch.

“It definitely got rocked,” photographer Jodi Frediani, who on Wednesday provided the images that accompany this post, said of the close call.

Frediani, who was aboard the Point Sur Clipper out of Monterey Bay Whale Watch, could not say whether any of the passengers on the other boat got drenched, but recalled seeing nothing but open mouths after the 30-ton whale splashed down.

She assured that this was not a case of either boat being too close to the whale, but a case of the whale approaching both boats and surprising everyone by breaching directly between them.

“It was coming toward us, pointed right at us, and then it shifted direction before it breached right between us,” said Frediani, adding that she was shooting with a zoom lens and that the Point Sur Clipper was considerably farther from the whale than the Sanctuary Cruises boat.

Humpback whales have spent the past several months feeding in Monterey Bay, and breaches are fairly common. But this was a special whale, as far as the passengers and crews were concerned, because it was extremely active.

Frediani said it breached 60 times in the span of an hour, and also tail-lobbed, and slapped the water with its pectoral fins.

"We first saw it at 12:06 and at 1:06 it was still breaching,” the photographer said. “I was getting tired just trying to follow it with my camera.

Frediani said that because the whale had changed direction, as it approached the boats, she missed the very beginning of the breach in her sequence.

The airport, on the outskirts of San Jose del Cabo, sustained significant damage when Hurricane Odile came ashore in the state of Baja California Sur on September 14-15.

The storm hit Cabo San Lucas, at Baja’s tip, the hardest.

Alaska Airlines on Friday at 7 p.m. updated its website to reflect that it would resume flying one daily roundtrip flight from Los Angeles to Los Cabos beginning October 8.

I looked into this and was provided the option of booking a 10:10 a.m. flight into SJD for $179 (one-way).

The United Airlines website also is accepting flights beginning October 8. Presumably, other airlines have followed or will follow suit.

Major airlines had implied that they would not resume flights until the end of October. Some insiders, however, have suggested that this was a ploy to negotiate cheaper landing fees at SJD.

Regardless, this is a major step toward recovery. Many hotels are still closed, but reopenings are expected to occur between mid-October and the end of November. October and November are peak months for tourism throughout BCS.

Aug 25, 2014

Wave heights in some areas, notably north Orange County, are expected to exceed 20 feet on Wednesday, when the swell is expected to peak. Wave heights at the world-famous Wedge in Newport Beach could exceed 25 feet, according to a media alert issued Monday by Surfline.com.

Hurricane Marie, located about 490 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas and churning in a northwesterly direction, reached Category 5 strength on Sunday. On Monday, Marie was at Category 4 strength, still a major storm, with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph.

Jan 13, 2014

Passengers aboard the Cabo Mar fiesta dinner cruise boat are always treated to stunning views of Cabo San Lucas and the rock formations at Land's End, but last week their tranquility was interrupted by a pod of energetic killer whales.

In footage uploaded Thursday, the orcas can be seen breaching close to the 65-foot catamaran and seemingly playing to the crowd.

Killer whales are not commonly seen off Cabo San Lucas, a popular resort destination at the tip of Baja California. But small pods are spotted sporadically in the area, and particularly in the Sea of Cortez.

Oct 22, 2013

Just about anyone can capture a quality sunset image, but it's a special moment when a photographer can capture a blaze-orange sunset with whales in the frame.

This is especially true when one of the whales is diving, and the sea water pouring from its fluke is the color of lava.

The accompanying image was captured by Katie Dunbar, a naturalist for Monterey Bay Whale Watch. Understandably, it was widely shared on Facebook.

"The singular moment was amazing," she said. "For me it sums up the phenomenon of the concentration of humpbacks. In one moment there were three whales with the setting sun, and normally we are lucky to see just one!

"As a biologist of course I am thrilled to see so many whales here to feed, the abundance of a recovering species. But as an artist I relish the opportunity to see such beautiful creatures, especially in such aesthetic conditions."

Hundreds of humpback whales have been feeding in Monterey Bay for more than a month, lured by a phenomenal showing of anchovies.

Dunbar said the image was not photoshopped.

"I literally didn't do any editing, it's just cropped for composition and rotated to have a straight horizon line," she said, adding that she used a Canon 7D with a 70-200mm f/4L USM lens."

Monterey Bay Whale Watch, commenting on its Facebook page, wrote: "It was the perfect end to a perfect day."

The storm, as of late Monday morning, boasted winds of 120 mph, and maximum gusts of 150 mph. It was a Category 3-level hurricane–the first in the Eastern Pacific this season–and expected to strengthen slightly before weakening slowly during the next few days as it churns to the west.

At 11 a.m. Raymond was located 105 miles southwest of the neighboring resort cities of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo in the state of Guerrero.

The storm was essentially stalled, inching northward at 2 mph. Areas that might feel the strongest effects over the next few days are in Guerrero. They include Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo and Acapulco, and the port city of Lazaro Cardenas, in the state of Michoacan.

Reached via email, longtime Zihuatanejo resident Ed Kunze stated that the hope is that the storm will be coaxed away from the region by geographical forces and cooler air coming from the south and east.

"It has stalled because it is pushing a huge amount of air in front of it, which gets blocked by the 7,000- to 9,000-foot Sierra Madre Mountains behind us," said Kunze, who is not a meteorologist but has been through several hurricane scares. "As the air gets packed against the mountains, it creates an artificial high pressure, which the hurricane bounces off of, and usually heads up the coast.

"But, this time we also have cold air coming down from the north, creating another 'wall.' To survive, it has to escape by changing directions… and probably out west. I am confident we won’t get hit, and the stalling action fairly well confirms it."

Kunze said that about three inches of rain had fallen by 1:30 p.m.

Corky Carroll, a former pro surfer who lives in Ixtapa, posted this observation on his Facebook page Monday morning: "Well.... HURRICANE RAYMOND which is reaching CAT 4 status is sitting rudely almost on top of us. So far just a lot of rain and the surf is not that bad either, but who knows what's next. One report says it is gonna cream us and the other says its not.... I am going with the NOT."

Last month, Hurricane Ingrid and on Mexico’s Gulf Coast and Tropical Storm Manuel in the Pacific teamed to cause flooding that killed at least 139 people and left thousands of residents homeless.

Hurricane Raymond is expected to maintain hurricane strength at least through Saturday, as it travels in a westerly direction.

Oct 16, 2013

After Congress gave final approval Wednesday night to a budget compromise that would temporarily reopen federal agencies, Yosemite National Park in California wasted no time in announcing that it was open and welcoming tourists.

Visitors, for the first time since the partial government shutdown was imposed on Oct. 1, were allowed access to public areas and roads. But facilities and other public services were still in the process of being brought back online.

"We are excited to reopen and welcome visitors back to Yosemite," stated park superintendent Don Neubacher. "Autumn is a particularly special season to enjoy Yosemite’s colorful grandeur."

The news release included the following information:

"Major highways and roads leading into and through Yosemite National Park, including the Glacier Point and Mariposa Grove roads, are open to vehicles. Park visitor centers will reopen and Ranger-led programs will resume on October 17. Visitors are urged to consult the Yosemite Guide for a list of programs.

"Valley campgrounds in Yosemite will reopen on October 17. Those with reservations will be able to check in by noon. First come, first serve sites at Camp Four, Wawona and Hodgdon are also available.

"Delaware North Parks & Resorts at Yosemite, Inc., the park’s primary concessioner, is reopening facilities and will begin to welcome guests immediately.

"The Ansel Adams Gallery, located in Yosemite Village, will also reopen."